How Do You Feel Ahead of the “World Tour” ?

Just for a bit of fun I started new poll today, asking how people feel ahead of the XE3 World Tour. I’ll reset the poll once the World Tour has been under-way for a time and the information being released is “in the wild”, to compare our reaction with our anticipation.
Like I say, it’s just a bit of fun – I have no illusions about the real significance or relevance of the exercise – but I thought it might be interesting after all the speculation recently, to gauge the feeling among the “community” (or that sub-set of it that knows about and feels like visiting, this blog) before and after the curtain is pulled back on XE3.

I am fired up and ready to go! Matthias starts with a preview event in Hamburg tomorrow Tuesday morning local time in Hamburg (00:00am PDT). Anders and Damien do their first preview in Sydney on Wednesday morning local time (3:30pm PDT).

How is simply asking people what they think “stirring” ? If inviting people to express their views is to be “stirring” and something with which you disapprove, then perhaps you had better close all those comment forms on your blogs! 😉

This is a blog, not “work”. Maybe I set expectations too high with the standards or expectations I have established ? 🙂

I had a quick notion for a poll (having not run a new poll for some time) and decided it was worth the 2-3 minutes it took to throw it together. I won’t put any particular significance on the results, I was just curious to “take the temperature” of my visitors.

Still I fail to see how asking people what they think is mischievous or critical. Not particulary useful, granted. But all work and no play as they say… 🙂 In fact, I was careful to ensure that the options I present to those who choose to participate covered the entire spectrum. Clearly I’m not aiming to skew any results by presenting only negative options.

But whatever you think of my intentions – you will and it seems have made up your mind on that score – rest assured my time is principally currently consumed by something that I think you will find far more interesting.

It’s great that you have access to sales information from Embarcadero on which to base this. Care to share? 😉

It’s a little puzzling though to me that you seem to think you know how well Delphi is doing “in the marketplace” when the marketplace (until later today/tomorrow) itself doesn’t know how well Delphi is serving it.

You don’t need to put a negative spin – though you will say that is what I am doing – you simply need to use your brain instead of taking the spoon-fed stats and swallowing them whole.

First up: It’s easy to achieve growth when you are starting from a low point. The “CodeGear Period” was one of optimism following a long period of decline. When Embarcadero took over good noises were coming from them about where Delphi was going. Most people I know now regard that period as a false dawn.

Secondly: Applying common sense, it is easy to see that people will now be keeping their licenses up to date simply to stay within the eligible upgrade window imposed by Embarcadero – it’s difficult to put a positive spin on that policy. It is nothing more than a strong-arm tactic to force people to upgrade to versions they don’t want or need simply to remain eligible for a hoped-for future version that will better suit their needs.

Thirdly: We now have licenses for older versions included.

No wonder sales are up.

Many development shops are using old versions of Delphi, versions that they previously could not legitimately purchase. When they brought on additional developers – permanent or temporary – what do we think they did ? Hot-desk at the development machines ?

Of course not.

I am sure many people are all too familiar with the old “Delphi Distiller” which I am sure came to the rescue of many a development group needing to get another Delphi 7 machine up and running but who were literally unable to purchase a license for it. Now they can, by purchasing a current Delphi license.

I’m not complaining that this is now possible, but you cannot ignore these dynamics that are almost certainly involved to some extent in these “growth” figures.

But of course, you wouldn’t expect to see such analysis in a press release which, by it’s very nature is always positive spin. So as I say, my analysis is not negative spin, just more realistic. “Neutral spin”. Or “Unspun”, if you like. Which by comparison can be characterised as “more negative” if you wish.

The thing that proves to me that you have no interest in anything but complaining is the effort to somehow paint four consecutive years of growth as negative and denying that Delphi is doing better in the marketplace since it was acquired by Embarcadero.

That isn’t constructive. It’s kvetching.

The constant almost compulsive negativity regardless of what happens is tiresome and drowns out any potentially valid points.

Venting my anger and frustration and drawing attention to how we have been let down… ? Absolutely. As is – I think – my right.

Call it negativity if you like. Arguably it is.

In much the same way that someone who has their house burgled get’s all negative, getting upset, checking their insurance policy, complaining to the police etc etc. So damned unrelentingly negative. Presumably you think they should just invite the burglars round for dinner and ask them to nick more of their stuff … ?

I can’t wait to see your positive spin on the news starting to come out of the “World Tour”.

I’ll have to agree that I’m not wild about the lack of enhancements to DataSnap, though. As far as they’ve come, I hope it hasn’t stalled.

Aside from that, I’m not too bummed out. I think I see what they’re getting at and prefer that they wait to deploy the new stuff. I even have a working theory about why the previous FPC work around for iOS won’t be in the initial release.

I’m tempted to say that I’d prefer that they waited until it was all complete, but I think I’d be in the minority. Imagine the noise made by some of the SA people who don’t understand how subscriptions work.

The only thing I shall judge you for is apparently not being informed. 😉

Because you don’t have to speculate as to why the FPC hack for iOS isn’t in the “initial release” of XE3. The reason for this has been quite explicitly given: Due to implementation details of FM2 it is no longer compatible with FPC.

Furthermore, it won’t be in ANY release of Delphi. If reports from the Hamburg World Tour day are correct, Embarcadero are going back on their previous intention to support mobile development in Delphi by placing all such capabilities in a new, yet to be released product: “Mobile Studio”. This will not – apparently – be part of Delphi, but a separate product.

I am enthusiastic. Since I dropped FM like a flaming ape, I have higher hopes for FM2. ARMv7 compiler and ARC is good stuff. If we down the line will be able to add WinRT/ARM and WP8 to the target list, I’ll be jumping for joy, but I am not holding my breath.

The postponing of mobile support with all the goodies is probably better than another half-baked release, but there is still no certainty it won’t be just a postponed AND half-baked release in 6 month.
That info should have been released earlier anyway, and now the pressure to deliver something (anything) in 6 months will be very high, not sure of that is a good thing.

Windows 8 is definitely on our roadmap – both for Intel and ARM processors. Today you can build SDK native apps. The R&D team is also working on ARMv7 and WinRT support for the future. Lars – you can breathe normally. We’ve got you covered today, tomorrow and into the future for years to come.

There are many parts to what Microsoft is delivering Windows 8 – the Windows 8 UI Style (that works with WinRT, WinSDK, WindowsPhone and XBox360Live) and the Windows Runtime(s) (RT and SDK). WinRT can work with Intel and ARM processor based machines/devices. WinSDK only works with Intel (AFAIK).

For XE3 we are delivering WinSDK support. Our R&D team is also working on WinRT support, but that will be for a future release.

Two options here – continue to use XE2 IDE with FMiOS support (included when you purchase XE3). Buy XE3 and get priority access to Mobile field tests. FM2 is the new entry point for both Win/OSX and mobile – with its support for sensors (on PCs and devices), touch/gesture, etc.